Helping Fin's Friend
by Fallingupsidedown
Summary: While Rey is off trying to find Luke, Finn is left behind to continue fighting with the resistance. Poe must help his friend as Finn must face the past he has been runnng from.


Poe Dameran landed his X wing fighter with only one slightly faulty landing gear - a few quick taps and he'd be ready to fly safely across the universe once again. He wanted to feel happy about the five planes he brought down but the head of one of the mechanics popped into his vision taking his thoughts in a new direction.

"We'll have the fighter fueled up in about twenty minutes. The evacuation order's already been sent out and everyone has to be off this rock in an hour." The mechanic reached his hand in and helped Poe out of the fighter. Poe jumped down to the ground, looking for Finn's familiar face.

But his friend wasn't waiting to great him, and the fighting on the planet was over. They had stopped the enemy from taking the base and after a hasty retreat they'd have a new base, set up on a new planet, settling into their new space. Poe hoped that Finn would be able to bunk with him again.

As Poe started across the tarmac to find his friend and offer him his copilot position for the evacuation BB-8 followed behind, easily rolling across the smooth surface. Poe headed down different corridors, wondering past different people quickly packing away boxes, filling up materials, and encoding different data for the big move.

Evacuations were always a hectic process. Poe himself had a few things to pack, a few sets of clothes, pictures of home, and such. All the items were haphazardly thrown into his suitcase, but as he spied around the room he noticed Finn's belongings were still folded away in their precise military fashion, his tablet that always rested in the upper right hand corner, and a few different tools were placed along the top for quick repairs if a blaster suddenly jammed.

Where's Finn?

The PA system crackled to life. "Please be aware that the base must be completely emptied in forty-five minutes. The self destruct sequence will begin at that time."

Poe looked down at BB-8 and asked, "Can you plug into the mainframe and find where Finn is?"

For a heart stopping moment Poe imagined Finn laying in the jungle, trampled under the efforts of war, pushed into the mud, losing the life blood that made a man so happy and great as him. But then BB-8 beeped up at him and projected the monitoring feed from the prison cell level. Finn was alive, sitting in the tiny hallway, staring at something Poe couldn't make out from the camera's angle.

"Good job BB. Let's go see what the hold up is."

The elevator was in constant use for the officials and attendants that were moving equipment, so Poe took the stairs two at a time, leaping down towards Finn. When he reached the level the first thing he noticed was the silence. The above levels were organized chaos but the prisoner level had been emptied long ago.

As he pushed the door open, Finn didn't act as if he noticed the entrance of his friend. He just kept staring straight ahead.

"Finn, man, we've got to go. You haven't even packed anything up for the big move." Poe moved down the length of the hallway, steps bouncing off the metal walls, and stood in front of the still silent Finn. "The mechanic said my plane is ready to fly. I can take you as my copilot. What do you say?"

Finn finally looked up and with tears in the corner of his eyes, asked "what about her?" He pointed across the hallway and through the glass door to what Poe finally saw was a storm trooper. It's helmet was still attached, but it was slumped against the wall, clearly unconscious, probably induced by the obvious burn mark that appeared in its abdomen region.

"What about it? I don't think anyone will want to spare room for a storm trooper prisoner. They don't usually provide the best intel. How'd they even get down here?"

"I brought her here."

Poe's eyebrows raised up into his hair line. "Okay, well that's kind of reckless. How'd that happen?"

Before Finn could start his story the PA system cracked to life again. "Please be aware that the base must be completely emptied in thirty minutes. The self destruct sequence will begin at that time."

Poe slid down the wall and took a seat next to Fin. "Better talk fast."

Finn gulped and started. "You know they landed a group of storm troopers just a mile or so north. I went with the group to fight them off, and when I shot this guy he fell and his helmet tumbled off, and that's when I saw it was FN-2188."

Poe's brain quickly followed what that meant. "So, she trained with you?"

Finn nodded. "We grew up together. They trained us together. We …" Finn tried to hold back a sob, but it didn't work. Instead it sounded like a strangled attempt at holding in a hiccup. Poe reached over and put his arm around Finn, but the younger man was back in his memories, stuck in a different time. "You know they made us fight. They took us, and they made us think the only thing we could do was fight. But before their brainwashing was complete, before they destroyed whoever I could have been, there was a brief moment where we were all just scared kids trying to survive." A few more sobs came out and the PA system announced that the base would be self destructing in fifteen minutes. "FN-2188 and I, we tried to help each other. We were always there for each other. Then one day they shipped us off to different parts of the galaxy. And I … I almost killed her."

Poe knew he didn't have the words of comfort that Finn needed, because there was no way for Poe to truly understand what Finn had gone through. "Is she like you?"

Finn looked over at Poe with a fire suddenly sparked. "Of course she's just like me! I was a storm trooper too!"

"But you broke the programming. You managed to break out of their manipulating and psychologically torturous hands."

Finn stood up and walked towards the glass door separating him from his oldest friend. "If I could change, anyone could change."

And that was good enough for Poe. "We can't just smuggle her onto my X-wing fighter, but we can try something else."

"What are you thinking?"

"It's risky, and you probably won't have time to go back and get all of your stuff out of your room. Are you okay with letting it blow up with the base?"

"Do you really think we can get her safely out of here?"

"Yes."

"Then let's do it."

Getting Finn's friend out of the base was quite the stunt. Poe sweet talked a nurse while Finn grabbed some of the final remaining medical supplies, and Poe grabbed one of the last empty crates. Then they pushed Finn's friend out on a hover cart as if she was to be loaded into Finn's weapons compartment. They stopped for final goodbyes on the line between the tarmac and the untamed jungle beyond. "I know you can take care of yourself, I'm just worried is all. What if your friend wakes up and tries to shoot you on sight?"

"I don't think she'd do that to me."

"Don't be so quick to assume things like that? She was recently shot. Anyone waking up to that would be in a mood to shoot first and ask questions later." A short moment of silence passed between them as neither wanted to say the final goodbye. "But seriously, what's your plan once she wakes up?"

"Take care of her and get her back to health?"

"And then?"

"Maybe we'll save some other storm troopers. There's more of us than you think."

Poe chuckled at a sudden thought. "I can just imagine you making your own army."

Fin smiled for the first time since Poe found him and said, "Maybe I will." Poe's smile dimmed for just a second as he realized how serious this was for Finn, but Finn was still to exited about finding an old familiar face. "Don't worry about me. I'll message you as soon as it's safe to come back."

Poe reached over and gave Finn a quick hug, "I'll come back as soon as you call."

"Thank you." Finn said as he pushed the hover mover and he was running the wilds of the jungle, vanishing.

Poe completed the final pre flight check up as the PA system announced "Please be aware that the base must be completely emptied in five minutes. The self destruct sequence will begin at that time."


End file.
